Essay from AEPL Board Member Featured

An essay from AEPL Board Member Laurence Musgrove entitled

In the Halls of Academia

has been featured on Inside Higher Ed.

Pictures from Conference 2007

Mountains


Irene and Peter


Nebraska House


More Mountains


Nebraska House


Horses and Mountains


Conference Backdrop


Beverly at the Estes Park Conference Center


Estes Park Conference Center


Mountain Sunset

AEPL 2007 summer conference in my fortune cookie last night

Laurence

Teaching Composition by Joona Trapp

Seven forty five in the blessed A. of M.
They perch in rows with drooping feathers
barely there, fluffed against the cold,
in the cages of their own physicality,
in the cage of these gray walls.

I understand but I have to begin.
Politely, they try to listen to my warble,
little heads cocked, eyelids half closed.
A wrong note elicits twittering,
a sort of melody causes answering song.

Gradually, like dim rays of the peeking sun,
the bodies straighten slightly,
feathers smooth and scratching begins.
One sings and another, then another,
they all share their songs.

Nine fifteen before we know it.
They fly from the room, past my perch,
fluttering, chirping, songs in their throats.
They will return in a few days
to sit once again on this vibrating wire.

Post AEPL Conference Story

Wanted to tell you all what happened to me after leaving by way of also passing a story along (though not with pictures).

I caught the 6:30 shuttle out of Rocky Mountain Park. We left at 6:10. A goodly but sleepy bunch of folk.

Just out of Peaceful Valley (oh, shades of Mickey Mouse!) we lost a fan belt. Luckily, we were right in front of a Dude Ranch.
Pulling over, we waited sometime for a replacement van. The chef at the ranch made us some coffee and tea which perked us all up.
Happy conversation ensued. It began to feel a bit like a Chaucerian group of pilgrims.

After reloading in the van, I visited with the driver the rest of the way down the moutain. An ex-salesman now Math teacher for ESL students, because he wanted to give something back, as he put it, I fell in love with the mountain of a man in the driver's seat--so gentle, so sweet, so considerate.

We all said goodbye at the airport. An AEPLer helped me get in with my heavy bags. We parted. I missed the plane and was told that there wasn't another flight to Atlanta with an open seat that day.
They suggested that I take a midnight flight to Dulles and fly in the next morning. Chosing rather to fly standby, I finally got on a plane around 1 pm, arrived in Atlanta in a thunderstorm, arrived a bit wet and exhausted at 11 pm in Milledgeville.

On the way from Macon, I talked with a graduate student. We became instant friends and she even wants me on her thesis committee.

Now, I'm with the other scholars, who seem to be the nicest people. And here in Georgia, of course, I'm sweetie, pumpkin, maam, darlin', precious and there's plenty of sweet tea.

But through all this journey, I never was anxious or worried, didn't get mad at the steward who kept criticising me for my baggage, and kept a smile all day. I think it was because I left with a heart filled with peace.
And I'm guessing I have you all to thank for that.

Thanks for welcoming me into the fold.

Joona Trapp

Laurence's Fish Story

Here's a little AEPL fishing story.

http://english.sxu.edu/musgrove/roaringriver.htm

Laurence

Poetry Reading - Laurence Musgrove

Dear AEPLers,

Here are the poems I read Friday night.

Laurence



All Wrong for Each Other

She’s all ears.
He’s all thumbs.


Captive Audience

As the curtain closes,
the ushers untie us.


Elevated

I'm tall.
Not that that's
always useful to me.
But I find I can be
helpful to others for
reaching this and that
up in the cupboard
or that book up
there on the shelf.
Better than having
a step stool around.

I've been tall ever
since I noticed
most others are smaller.
And these shorter
folks notice it too
and feel I ought to
be reminded because
they often say to me,
"Hey, you sure are tall."
And I say, “Yes, thanks."
Like it's a reward
for noticing me
up here who's been
here all along.

But I'm not as tall
as some I know,
like basketballers
and Midwest Swedes.
And there's those girls
"Tall Drinks of Water,"
they say or "Hey, Stretch,
How’s the weather up there?"
But I think how
lucky she is
to reach her own stuff.

I like folks who are
tall too or just a bit
taller because they
make me stand straighter
to look in their eyes.
But smaller folks
make me want to
slouch down near
toward where they are.
I spread my feet a bit
and kind of lean over.
Maybe I'm just hard
of hearing way up here
in the wind and clouds,
jet airplanes flying by.

I'm a long tall Texan.
I ride a big white horse.

There's an aunt of mine
I don't see too often,
but when I do
she always asks,
"Are you still growing?"
Here I am with gray hairs
myself and you'd think
she'd know better,
her being an old
school teacher and all,
but she still chuckles
and says every time,
"You're so tall!
What have you been eating?"
I laugh, but maybe
I did eat something
or stand out in the sun
too long some Texas afternoon
where there's a bit
more room to grow,
like a weed they say.
Or like those lightening bit
pine trees that coonskin­
capped Davy Crockett
must have rode through
on the way to his Alamo
headline and glory.

I tried golf once,
but when I looked
at the ball on the tee
it seemed so far away
down there I figured
I'd never get all of me
going in the same direction
at the same time
to make much sense
of all the effort needed.

I also hit my head on stuff.
Pipes overhead
in the basement,
tops of stairwells
in old houses.
Folks tell me to duck
before I see it corning.
But tall folks get used
to knots on their noggins.

Showers are another problem.
The water hits me in the chest
so I get good at stooping
when it comes to the hygiene
of my upper dimensions.
Tubs of course are impossible.
And mirrors? Forget about it.
All too often I've a headless
reflection so I never know
if my hair is in place or not.

And when I ride in other
folks' cars they make
me ride in the front
because I'm so long.
“You sit up here in front."
But when I get in the back,
they think they have to yank
their chins right up
against the dashboard.
"Got enough room.
back there for your legs?"
Like I'm some special case
with extra fragile kneecaps.
“You tall people over there!
You know, with those legs.
Be careful where you put them!"

I'm a long tall Texan.
I wear a ten gallon hat.

Once I went to a movie
and sat on the aisle.
I crossed my legs
during the hullabaloo
and at the ending credits,
I stood up and fell over
onto the carpet right
in front of the crowd
racing out for the lobby.
My leg went to sleep
and numb and failed me.
So I had to pull myself up
and do a little shake-a-leg stomp
I seen country folks
do on the hardboards
at an old timey dance hall
in the Hill Country.

Yes, tall folks are
generally handicapped
circulatorally.
It's a long steep road for
blood to travel up and
around and down again.
My wife won't let me
touch her in the winter
because I've got icicles
hanging off my
fingers and toes.

I'm a long tall Texan.
I enforce justice for the law.

When I put you up on
my shoulders when you
were just learning
to stand tall yourself,
what was the world
you saw from up there?
I'd duck down a bit
and lift you up
for a soft diaper landing
there in your overalls
with snaps up the legs
and those little flat shoes.
You'd grab my hair
and ears to hold on.
What was it you saw
from being suddenly
that tall above me?
I hope you spied places
I never saw because
that's where I hoped
you go to tell us all.

Did I say I was tall?

So if you're tall, too,
it's not too much of a reach
to say you've a friend in me,
raised like we were
and sharing like we do
the long inseam,
the head above the crowd,
our collective
heightened consciousness.


Go Fish

Sunlight on her hands, back to the kitchen,
Mamaw sat across from me, shuffling cards.
Aunt Ruth and her polio-thin leg
Clunked down the hallway in hard brown shoes.

Cards for two is about symmetry and balance,
Patty-cake with aces high,
Matching and mirroring and taking turns,
Like Sunday dinner and passing the rolls.

Mustard greens by the clapboard garage,
The tall magnolia climbing with cousins,
I’m sitting on the front porch in my clip-on tie
Waiting for the next family snapshot.

Cards with my daughters? I played to lose.
To sit and win were gifts we exchanged.
I know a trick I learned from my dad
Your card disappears until it’s the only one left.

My girlfriend and I are away this weekend,
A small cabin in the Wabash woods.
I brought some cards, opened the deck.
I deal left-handed, Mamaw dealt with her right.


Outside

There are words that probably should be kept outside the ropes of poetry. And there are clumsy ideas too eager to join in. That's what I'm thinking because I'm thinking about clothes hangers, the thin white ones I send to the end of my closet and the one I saw yester­day afternoon in the large hands of that man in the parking lot at the grocery store. Untwisting the wire from itself, he pulled apart the neck, and straightened out the shoulder turns. He fed one end between the window and the door and sent it down toward the lock. I wished him luck. I've made mistakes myself. I've forgotten my house key and once I broke a window to get in. Last weekend I had to open a clothes hanger, too. Birds fly into our exhaust fan vents. Lifting up the hinged louvers, they hop inside and nest themselves at home. Once a bird wandered into the ductwork and had to be released into our kitchen. A bird isn't like a dog. You just can't open the door and tell it to go out. Like I was saying, I climbed up the ladder, took off the vent covers, reached inside with the long hooked finger of the hanger, and pulled out the grass and feathered bowl. You know how it feels to want in. You know what it's like to be locked out.


Dear Dad, please stop sending me emails about Islam’s anger

Jacob has an FBI internship this summer in DC.
He writes well, sat in the front row, and has a twin brother.
He drives his father’s used Cadillac and is always prepared.
He knocked on my office door for a recommendation,
and I was happy to do it. The FBI wanted an interview,
so I met a field agent in a tight gray suit in the library.
Jacob wants go to law school and speak justice in Arabic.

Zeinab flew all the way from her apartment building in Cairo
to teach American college kids about genital mutilation,
women in the Arab world, and her love of pancakes.
Afraid of each other, Irish Catholics, White Sox Blacks,
Pilsen Latinos, and hijab-draped girls leaned on their desks.
She told them stories about her husband, the professor,
who brought his young bride to Ames, Iowa, and Aunt Jemima.

Khaled teaches computer science, and in the stairwell
he tapes up posters about next week’s InterFaith Expo.
The Orland Park mosque has completed its first phase,
but he said the parking lot will have to be expanded again.
Every summer, he flies to see his parents in Jordan.
When I see him on campus, I say his name in my throat.
His father is dying in a country that is not Palestine.

Adnan lives on a hill in Beirut with his wife and sons.
Tonight the neighborhood generators have fuel,
and the rains are blowing in from the sea and far away.
In his study, he grips his brown pipe in his teeth,
lights the fragrant bowl, and the orange ashes glow.
Tomorrow he will board a bus to the University,
and the books in his bag will be as light as a pillow.


Deliberation

Climbing up the wooden stairs
From the damp and low hung
Basement into the curious eyes

Of the worried couple, she reported
That she had indeed spoken
With the crowd assembled below,

Presented the choices as instructed,
That is, leave or the exterminator
Would be called straight away—

Not the choice the wife preferred
(She who had searched online for
Child-proof options to traps and poison)

Better they choose another home
Or the nearby farm of easy corn.
So when huddled for her report,

The husband doubtful of silent talk,
The animal communicator smiled
And nodded, an ear even then to

The high debate pressing on below,
Confident a resolution still possible
Given the rats remained divided.


Butterfly Chair

Where the heck
did my sleeping bag go?


Elementary

Remember when she
said to read silently
and not move your lips,
how the music stopped
and you went blind
every time you saw
stanzas reaching up
again from the page?


The Rhetorician on His Knees

Here beneath the May oaks
kneeling on the bluegrass,
he wonders about audience.

Where the mower would not cut,
he crawls around each trunk
and snips the bladed crown.

In the shadowed afternoon,
the metal shears lisp
and the seed heads topple over.

Soft cicadas root under sod.
Next week, they’ll muster,
rise winged and cycle through.

His knees puddle on the lawn,
and cotton gloves comfort
his scissoring grip.

The disciplined grass
and the edged sidewalk
praise the cloudless sky.

On all fours in a blessing,
he pinches up a weedling
and tosses it across the yard.

Closing Session

Closing session: Open mic: Bring your writings from
conference sessions to share with the group.

“Where is The Love?,” Molly Swick

In our attempts to make this a more peaceful planet, with more love than fear, more justice than injustice, more healing than harm... hope and love, as ontological needs for transforming society, are crucial elements in effective classrooms. A loving educational philosophy is imperative, yet insufficient without practical applications for creating a safe learning environment. Examining the teacher/student relationship, moving from banking to problemposing education, dialoguing as a pedagogical tool, respecting lived experiences, striving for oneness in difference, and embracing love, hope and humility will be included in the discussion. I will use, as a background for the workshop, my dissertation topic: “The Social Justice Theories of Paulo Freire as a Pedagogical Language of Hope.” Come help me change the world!!!

“Poetry, Inner Work, and Holistic Writing Groups,” Stan Scott

In this session we will look at poetry as a form of inner work that leads to greater self-awareness, emotional engagement, and movement toward maturity on the part of students. We will do some writing and other activities that demonstrate what I call holistic practices in writing groups—with the instructor present in every group—that have led to truly amazing results in my own teaching as well as students’ lives.

“Because I Said So: Negotiating Power/lessness and the Politics of Silence in a Writing Program,” Stella Apostolidis, Roseanne Gatto, Tom Philipose, T

“Because I Said So: Negotiating Power/lessness and the Politics of Silence in a Writing Program,” Stella Apostolidis, Roseanne Gatto, Tom Philipose, Tara Roeder

As professors who must negotiate multiple roles in the academy (graduate students, full-time contract faculty, administrators), we are invested in exploring the way our emotions can be mobilized to empower us (and our students), and the ways in which they are often repressed by institutional ideology. The questions we seek to address are: How can we negotiate our “double roles” in order to overcome the anxiety, pressure, and selfconsciousness we feel when dealing with the academic institution and its representatives, and how/why do we “mask” these anxieties in the classroom? How do we deal with the “silencing” tactics of a Catholic, conservative
administration, and the widespread pressure to abandon expressivist classroom practice? How do we use our anger, and the anger of our students, in constructive ways in the writing classroom?

Plenary Session with Sheridan Blau

SHERIDAN BLAU teaches in the Education and English departments at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also directs the South Coast Writing Project. A past President of the National Council of Teachers of English, he has served as the senior consultant for the development of California's statewide language arts assessment, and on the panel that developed the assessment instruments and scoring procedures for certifying teachers applying for National Board Certification in the English Language Arts. He is the author of The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and their Readers.

“She’s Telling the Truth: What We Might Learn from Miss Ferenczi and Other Teachers in Stories,” Jo Anne Katzmarek

The conversation in this session will begin with a look at teachers as they are portrayed in Charles Baxter’s short story “Gryphon.” In that story, Miss Ferenczi, an unusual substitute teacher stirs some fourth graders to think in new and exciting ways and other fourth graders to hang on fervently to the facts they learned from their “regular” teacher.

Using Miss Ferenczi as a starting point, we will explore the portrayal of teachers in stories and poems as a means to clarify professional dispositions for teacher education. Some points we may ponder: To what extent is our own identity as teacher shaped by the image of teachers we have read in stories and poems? What are some powerful metaphors for teachers and teaching suggested by these literary creations? How do these literary creations measure up the teacher dispositions being advocated by the teacher education professional community and especially by the teacher education accreditation policies? On the other hand, what might the role be for stories about teachers in the preparation of teachers?

“The Heart and Soul of Curriculum: Emotional Challenges in the Student-Centered Classroom,” Kristin Prevallet

Several years ago, I had a class that fundamentally shattered me emotionally, and since then I have changed my persona and my pedagogy to adjust to emotional situations in my classrooms. I am no longer the same teacher that I was five years ago—of course this has to do with growing wiser. But it also has to do with adjusting my pedagogy and overall approach to shield myself from the emotional trauma of that one class—a class that probably was an anomaly, but one that bruised me nevertheless. This interactive workshop will engage questions of authority and boundaries that we must often deal with in our classes.

"The Visceral Power of Playing: A Workshop Exploring the Provocative Contemporary Relevance of Shakespeare's MERCHANT OF VENICE." Lorelle Browning

Saturday morning session.

“‘Oh please, not him!’ and Other Reflections on Disliking, and Maybe Liking, Students,” E.A. Miller Mlcak

Evening Session
Featuring readings—Kristin Prevallet, Laurence Musgrove and followed by an open mic.

"Teaching After Hurricane Katrina," Alicia Blair "The 'Not-Trying' of Writing," Rachel Forrester

Rachel will engage participants in a reflective exercise, and share her thoughts about how a very spiritual "not trying," or non-work, is what's at the heart of the mysterious event when composition occurs.

Alicia will share her practical experiences during the Post-Katrina period with her sixth grade students. She will explain how allowing emotions into the classroom, and following specific strategies and activities, made her year productive and successful.

“Picturing Reading Relationships,” Laurence Musgrove

In this 75-minute interactive workshop, participants will graphically explore their attitudes toward and relationships with reading and teaching. I will ask teachers to represent their reading and teaching visually in three ways, first a drawing of what happens when they read, second a drawing of how they would depict reading for their students, and third a drawing of what happens when they teach reading. We will then review these drawings as a way to examine their emotional or attitudinal dimensions, and consider methods for promoting other kinds of relationships with reading and teaching. I will also share examples of students' drawings from my research that reveal a range of reading emotions.

Click here for a handout from this session.

"Emotions at the Intersection of Realism and Idealism: When Student Emails Treat Teachers Like Flight Attendants," Richard Williams

My students' emails sometimes make me angry. In this presentation I will I explore the social roots of my emotions through Arlie Hochschild’s notion of "the commercialization of human feelings". Her idea ultimately allows me to understand the conflicting assumptions that students and teachers have about education—students tend to be realists, while teachers tend to be idealists. Exploring those assumptions, I conclude that the task faced by teachers today is more complex than that of merely helping students; we must also help ourselves. In discussing this, I will explore the interplay between realism and idealism and engage participants in a writing exercise about it.

And

“Beyond Rhetorical Conventions: Composing as Emotional Process in WAC/WID,” Wendy Ryden. Respondent, Beverly Wall

“The Emotional Life of BECOMING a Teacher: The Getting and Giving of Wisdom,” Bruce Novak

A major source of disturbance in teachers' emotions can be located in the general devaluation of our profession in contemporary culture. What in most cultures through time has been a very high personal and spiritual calling, a life-renewing ministry, is now mostly seen as an undesirable and servile job, at the beck and call of markets and administrators of various kinds. In this session you will experience in microcosm a course devised to help people tap both into their own INNER teacher—recollecting the transformative wisdom each one of us has acquired that allows us to be imaginative sources of transformative life to others—and into the enormous human power that can be discovered in the tradition of teaching, which is synonymous with the traditions of wisdom.

“Provoking Emotion for Growth in English Language Arts,” Steve Lafer

The session will engage participants in a discussion of emotion provoking topics and in writing exercises designed to move students from feeling to expression of feeling and the adjustment of text and speech to adequately convey the emotion behind the discourse. A discussion of the place of emotion in the classroom, the place of teacher emotions in the classroom, and means for encouraging the emotional involvement of students in reading, speaking, listening, and writing will be facilitated and include dramatic readings of literary works, consideration of the controversial and emotion raising aspects of stories appearing in newspapers, magazines, on television, radio, and in film. We will consider how regular exposure to such materials and activities aid in emotional growth and the development of critical language arts skills.

“The Spooky House": Emotions and Vulnerabilities in the Classroom, ” Patricia Sharpe, Anne O’Dwyer, and Philip Mabry

This workshop will invite participants to acknowledge vulnerability in the classroom, to consider the emotions it evokes, as well as its dangers and possibilities. The story of one teacher's inability to comprehend and validate her students' excitement will offer a metaphor for talking about emotions, vulnerability, and the relational "third space" we seek to create with our students. Finally, we will explore how "safe" the classroom can and should be.

“Wrath and Envy: The Leisure Class in My Class(room),” Robert Peltier, and “‘Elitist White Lady Who Tries too Hard’: Pedagogy, Emotion, and Race in Co

“Wrath and Envy: The Leisure Class in My Class(room),”
Robert Peltier, and “‘Elitist White Lady Who Tries too Hard’: Pedagogy,
Emotion, and Race in Contemporary College Classrooms," Allison Brimmer

How does emotion intersect with the complexities of socioeconomic class and racial/ethnic identities in (and beyond) the classroom? How do teachers and students enact their multiple identities in relation to these categories and with what successes and failures? This session will help participants to understand themselves and their pedagogies in more depth by sharing stories and writing about their experiences.

“Develop a Creative Practice to Help Connect to Emotions and Honor Them as a Teacher,” Laura Roberts

Teachers are members of a “high-touch” & high stress profession (Skovholt, 2001). Many leave the field after only five years (Ingersoll, 2001, 2003). How can we keep teachers in the field happy and help them avoid burnout? I believe that taking care of oneself (emotionally & mentally) is of the utmost importance particularly for teachers who are in an emotionally depleting profession. I will offer a manageable personal creative practice as a way to do this, versus the traditional offerings of professional development, higher pay, or a change in environment. Come reconnect, renew and rejuvenate through a creative practice that helps explore and pay attention to emotions in a safe personal way.

Hidden Depths: A Workshop,” Joonna Trapp and Barbara Turnwall

An interactive workshop drawing on elements of the teaching life that energize and drain us emotionally. Using memoir as genre, what stories can we tell that illustrate the effects of emotions in our teaching? Participants will read, write, and share in community during the workshop.

Opening Plenary Session: Peter Elbow

Biographical Information

PETER ELBOW's ideas about freewriting and responding to writing have shaped the way writing has been taught for the past few decades, both in the United States and in an increasing number of international settings. His perspectives on issues like academic discourse, evaluation, the nature of binaries, voice, dialect, and standard English have helped to define the theoretical concerns of the profession of Composition Studies. Elbow is the author of many books, including Writing Without Teachers, Writing With Power, Embracing Contraries: Essays in Learning and Teaching, Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing, and others, and he is co-author of a textbook, A Community of Writers. He has also published many essays in composition and English journals, and given countless presentations and workshops all over the world. He has taught at various colleges and universities, and directed the writing programs at SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he is now a Professor Emeritus.

THE EMOTIONAL LIFE OF TEACHERS: Conference Schedule

The 2007 Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL)Conference begins tomorrow.

Click Here for a printable schedule. This document is a PDF.
If you prefer a Word document, Click Here.


For driving directions Click Here.

Transportation to the Estes Park Conference Center

We are hoping we can use this blog to help coordinate travel to the Estes Park YMCA from the Denver airport. If anyone chooses to rent a car for the weekend, and would consider sharing costs/transportation enter that information in the comments for this blog post.

If you would like to share information, simply do the following:

Click the comment button at the bottom of this posting.

In the "Leave Your Comment" box enter the information/need you would like to share. If you have a google blog account, you can enter your identification that way. If you don't, you may enter your information as "anonymous" but you can enter contact information in the box. Remember, a blog is a totally public place. Anyone could see this information if they search for it. If you post information without full identification, send an email to the AEPL folks and we can help with the communication.

Sheridan Blau and Peter Elbow: Featured Speakers

Featured Speakers' Biographical Information

PETER ELBOW's ideas about freewriting and responding to writing have shaped the way writing has been taught for the past few decades, both in the United States and in an increasing number of international settings. His perspectives on issues like academic discourse, evaluation, the nature of binaries, voice, dialect, and standard English have helped to define the theoretical concerns of the profession of Composition Studies. Elbow is the author of many books, including Writing Without Teachers, Writing With Power, Embracing Contraries: Essays in Learning and Teaching, Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing, and others, and he is co-author of a textbook, A Community of Writers. He has also published many essays in composition and English journals, and given countless presentations and workshops all over the world. He has taught at various colleges and universities, and directed the writing programs at SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he is now a Professor Emeritus.

SHERIDAN BLAU teaches in the Education and English departments at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also directs the South Coast Writing Project. A past President of the National Council of Teachers of English, he has served as the senior consultant for the development of California's statewide language arts assessment, and on the panel that developed the assessment instruments and scoring procedures for certifying teachers applying for National Board Certification in the English Language Arts. He is the author of The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and their Readers.

Summer Conference 2007: The Emotional Life of Teachers

Teaching involves many feeling—passion, joy, anger, fear, shame, guilt, sadness, happiness, frustration, etc. Too often, though, and for various reasons, teachers keep their feelings separate from their work as teachers.

This conference will explore teachers’ emotions from theoretical and practical standpoints, with attention to how those feelings have conscious and unconscious influences on teaching and teachers. In addition to the featured sessions, we will have a plenary on Meditation and Yoga, and a series of concurrent sessions on various approaches to the conference topic. AEPL is an Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English; teachers at all levels and in all disciplines are welcome at this conference.

The conference will begin with dinner on Thursday, June 28, and will conclude with breakfast on Sunday, July 1. No sessions are scheduled for July 1.

AEPL—Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL), an official assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English, is open to all those interested in exploring the boundaries of teaching and learning beyond traditional disciplines and methodologies. Areas of interest include, but are by no means limited to: aesthetic, emotional, and moral intelligence; archetypes; body wisdom; care in education; creativity; felt sense theory; healing; holistic learning; humanistic and transpersonal psychology; imaging; intuition; kinesthetic knowledge; meditation; narration as knowledge; reflective teaching; silence; spirituality; and visualization.

AEPL's purpose is:

to explore research on expanded perspectives on learning and its implications for and applications to English and language arts education;
to encourage research and classroom practices that focus on new conceptions of learning;

to encourage publications and presentations on the subject;

to present programs and special projects on relevant topics;

to provide an open forum for theorists, researchers, and practitioners to exchange ideas on these and related subjects;

to integrate the efforts of those in various disciplines who have a common interest in effective teaching and learning.

AEPL invites participation in its many events, including AEPL's annual summer conference, JAEPL (the journal for AEPL), the AEPL Newsletter, national convention workshops, panels, and special interest groups at the College Composition and Communication Conference (4Cs) and the National Council of Teachers of English Convention.